The above first thirteen are called "Mo'ed" – holiday celebrations and commemorations. However Chulin, the fourteenth, is in the section of the Mishnah called "Taharot" – the subjects of ritual purity.
The above eight are referred to as "Nashim" – subjects especially concerning women and families.
The above ten are called "Nezikin":
• Criminal Law – Laws of Judges and their Law Courts, Witnesses, Legal Penalties and Remedies.
• Civil Law – Damages, Negligence vs. Culpability, Property Rights, Disputes, Misdemeanors.
This entire study order totals thirty-two tractates. The number
Rabbi Haim Yosef David Azulai (The Hida) is an intermediary source of the information cited above. He wrote concerning Rabbi Menachem son of Shlomoh:
The Rabbi, of blessed memory, composed a greatly important work of Jewish Law (Halachah *) called Beit HaBechira.* This composition constitutes six handwritten volumes. He organized the rulings of Halachah by the order which the Ga'onim would study the Gemara.
This order of the tractates above follows what the Hida wrote.
The editor's source: Toldot HaPoskim (Lexicon of the Great Jewish Scholars), by Rabbi Shimon Mosheh Chanis of Vilna, printed in Warsaw, 1929.
The name of the grandfather of Rabbi Menachem son of Rabbi Shlomoh was Me'ir,* i.e., his full name was "Rabbi Menachem son of Rabbi Shlomoh son of Rabbi Me'ir." "Me'iri" is like a family name used, perhaps, to distinguish him from another rabbi whose name was also Menachem son of Shlomoh. Rabbi Menachem, "The Me'iri," lived in Provence (today's south of France) from about 1249-1315.
To give perspective, the first compilation of daily Jewish Law (Halachah) was completed by the year 1349: the Tur.* This compilation became the basis for glosses on the Tur (named Beit Yosef *) by Rabbi Joseph Karo in 1542, then expanded and revised by him in 1563 as the Shulchan Aruch * – the Code of Jewish Law / Way of Jewish Life.
Previously, Rabbi Moses Maimonides had completed his masterful and sweeping code of Halachah – the Mishneh Torah.* His Code covers every aspect of Halachah including laws that had not been applicable since the destruction of the Second Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Maimonides finished his Code – the Mishneh Torah before he passed away in 1204.
Rav Sherira, a Ga'on himself, dealt systematically with the question of how the Mishnah, Tosefta, Baraitot, and the Talmud were compiled, and the order in which he studied the tractates, which differed from the above order (Lawrence H. Schiffman. Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. [Hoboken, New Jersey: Ktav Publishing House, 1998] p. 537).
Ga'onim - gah OH neem, geh oh NEEM; also spelled Ge'onim; the singular is Ga'on, regardless (seventh to eleventh centuries)
Menachem - meh NAH khem
Shlomoh - SHLOH moh, Solomon
Me'iri - meh EE ree
Mo'ed - moh EHD, MOH ehd
Taharot - ta ha ROHT, taw ha ROHT
Nashim - nah SHEEM, NAH shihm
Nezikin - neh zih KEEN, neh ZEE kihn
Halachah - hah lah KHAH; also spelled Halacha, Halakhah
Beit HaBechira - BAYT hah beh khih RAH; translated as "The Chosen Home" (meaning the Holy Temple in Jerusalem)
Me'ir - MEH eer
Tur - TOOHR, by Rabbi Ya'akov ben Asher, circa 1275 - 1349
Beit Yosef - BAYT YOH sehf; "Joseph's House"
Shulchan Aruch - SHUHL khan AW ruhkh; literally, the "Set Table"
Mishneh Torah - MIHSH neh TOH rah